Nehemiah 12:31 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Nehemiah 12:31
Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall, and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks, whereof one went on the right hand upon the wall toward the dung gate:
to ascend · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
princes
שָׂרֵ֣יsa.Rei
H8269
a head person (of any rank or class) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Judah
יְהוּדָ֔הye.hu.Dah
H3063
Jehudah (or Judah) · proper noun, a place name
wall
לַחוֹמָ֑הla.cho.Mah
H2346
a wall of protection · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
appointed
וָאַעֲמִ֡ידָהva.'a.'a.Mi.dah
H5975
to stand · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular + paragogic he
two
שְׁתֵּ֣יshe.Tei
H8147
two · cardinal number, feminine dual construct
great
גְּדוֹלֹ֨תge.do.Lot
H1419
great (in any sense) · adjective, feminine plural absolute
thanks
תוֹדֹת֩to.Dot
H8426
properly · noun, common feminine plural absolute
went
וְתַהֲלֻכֹ֤תve.ta.ha.lu.Khot
H8418
a procession · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural absolute
hand
לַיָּמִין֙lai.ya.Min
H3225
the right hand or side (leg · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
wall
לַחוֹמָ֔הla.cho.Mah
H2346
a wall of protection · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
dung
הָאַשְׁפֹּֽתha.'ash.Pot
H830
a heap of rubbish or filth · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
gate
לְשַׁ֖עַרle.Sha.'ar
H8179
an opening · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Nehemiah 2:13 And I went out by night by the gate of the valley, even before the dragon well, and to the dung port, and viewed the walls of Jerusalem, whi…
Nehemiah 12:38 And the other company of them that gave thanks went over against them, and I after them, and the half of the people upon the wall, from beyo…
1 Chronicles 13:1 And David consulted with the captains of thousands and hundreds, and with every leader.
1 Chronicles 28:1 And David assembled all the princes of Israel, the princes of the tribes, and the captains of the companies that ministered to the king by c…
2 Chronicles 5:2 Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto Jerus…
Nehemiah 3:13-14 The valley gate repaired Hanun, and the inhabitants of Zanoah; they built it, and set up the doors thereof, the locks thereof, and the bars…
Nehemiah 12:40 So stood the two companies of them that gave thanks in the house of God, and I, and the half of the rulers with me:
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Nehemiah 12:27-43
We have read of the building of the wall of Jerusalem with a great deal of fear and trembling; we have here an account of the dedicating of it with a great deal of joy and triumph. Those that sow in tears shall thus reap.
I. We must enquire what was the meaning of this dedication of the wall; we will suppose it to include the dedication of the city too (continens pro contentothe thing containing for the thing contained), and therefore it was not done till the city was pretty well replenished, Neh 11:1. It was a solemn thanksgiving to God for his great mercy to them in the perfecting of this undertaking, of which they were the more sensible because of the difficulty and opposition they had me…
at the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem--This ceremony of consecrating the wall and gates of the city was an act of piety on the part of Nehemiah, not merely to thank God in a general way for having been enabled to bring the building to a happy completion, but especially because that city was the place which He had chosen. It also contained the temple which was hallowed by the manifestation of His presence, and anew set apart to His service. It was on these accounts that Jerusalem was called "the holy city," and by this public and solemn act of religious observance, after a long period of neglect and desecration, it was, as it were, restored to its rightful proprietor. The dedication cons…
Then I brought up the princes - Perhaps this verse should be read thus: "Then I caused the princes of Judah to go upon the wall, and appointed two great choirs, [to sing praises], and two processions, one on the right hand, etc.
The following seems to have been the order of the procession: he divided the priests, the Levites, the magistrates, and the people into two companies; each company to go round one half of the wall. They began at the dung gate, one party going to the right and the other to the left, till they met at the great space opposite to the temple, where they all offered many sacrifices to God, and rejoiced with exceeding great joy; shouting so that the noise was heard a great…
The Church Fathers
And I caused the leaders of Judah to ascend upon the wall, etc. The leaders of Judah, that is, of confession or praise, are indeed the more advanced teachers of the holy Church, who ascend upon the wall in the dedication of the city; because when the time of recompense shall appear, they will be shown to have transcended the general conduct of the holy Church by living more loftily. These are of whom the Lord promises to the same Church through the prophet, saying: "I have appointed watchmen upon your walls" (Isaiah XXVI). Hence it is just that those who are now elevated as the wall of the holy Church in the capacity of watchmen, should then also surpass the others in the glory of their reward. Where two large choirs of praisers are established, because from both peoples, namely, the Jews and the Gentiles, who praise God in the heavenly homeland, they come. What also anyone learned recognizes to happen daily in this life. These choirs indeed go to the right upon the wall, because the just, by living rightly, hasten to eternal life both now in the present, and will reach it in the future. They go to the gate of the dung heap, indeed in the present to purge the filth of sins from the Church by living rightly and correcting those who err. In the future, however, so that they may expel by judicial power from the city of the Lord, that is, from the entrance to the heavenly homeland, those who were unwilling to be corrected. Or certainly, the choirs of praisers go to the right upon the wall to the gate of the dung heap, while they proclaim the worthy of praise, who took care to eliminate all uncleanness from the Church by preaching, reproving, excommunicating, anathematizing.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Ezra — Help. (1.) A priest among those that returned to Jerusalem under Zerubabel (Neh. 12:1). (2.) The “scribe” who led the second body of exiles that returned from Babylon to Jerusalem B.C. 459, and…
Nehemiah — Comforted by Jehovah. (1.) Ezra 2:2; Neh. 7:7. (2.) Neh. 3:16. (3.) The son of Hachaliah (Neh. 1:1), and probably of the tribe of Judah. His family must have belonged to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:3). He was…
Dedication · Of the wall of — Of the wall of
Ezra · . — .
Gates · Of Jerusalem: Dung gate — Of Jerusalem: Dung gate
Jerusalem · Dung gate — Dung gate
Levites, The · Services of: Conducting the sacred music — Services of: Conducting the sacred music
Thankfulness · .Upon the completion of great un — .Upon the completion of great un
Thanksgiving · Should be offered: Upon the completion of great undertakings — Should be offered: Upon the completion of great undertakings
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Then I brought up the princes of Judah upon the wall,.... Which was so broad as to walk upon it, and there was a procession of the princes on it at its dedication, and here is described the manner of it; the princes of Benjamin must be included here:
and appointed two great companies of them that gave thanks; he divided the people who were met together to praise God on this occasion into two companies: whereof
one went on the right hand upon the wall; that is, on the southern part of it:
towards the dung gate; of which see Nehemiah 2:13 some Jewish writers, as Jarchi and Ben Melech, give a different sense of , which we render "two companies", and take them to be two eucharistical loaves o…
The dedication of the wall of Jerusalem. - The measures proposed for increasing the numbers of the inhabitants of Jerusalem having now been executed (Neh 7:5 and Neh 11:1.), the restored wall of circumvallation was solemnly dedicated. Neh 12:27-29 treat of the preparations for this solemnity.
Neh 12:27
At the dedication (i.e., at the time of, בּ denoting nearness of time) they sought the Levites out of all their places, to bring them to Jerusalem to keep the dedication. Only a portion of the Levites dwelt in Jerusalem (Neh 11:15-18); the rest dwelt in places in the neighbourhood, as is more expressly stated in Neh 12:28 and Neh 12:29. ושׂמחה, to keep the dedication and joy, is not suitable,…
This impressive march proceeded southward along the top of the wall to the Dung Gate at the southern end of the city (3:13-14). Then the procession continued north on the wall along the east side of the city, past the ruins of the house of David and up to the Water Gate (3:26; 8:1) near the Temple.
Rashi on Nehemiah 12:31
upon the wall meaning that he sanctified the city, the princes, the tribunal, and the Levites with two thanksgiving offerings around the city, as is delineated in Tractate Shebuoth (14a, 15a, b), in order to sanctify the city.
two...thanksgiving offerings two breads of the thanksgiving offerings, each bread being called a thanksgiving offering.
with processions to the right And when they went out of the city in order to encompass it, they went to the right side.
